202 
BUFF-NECKED HUMMING-BIRD. 
From California along the north-west coast to Nootka Sound. Abundant. 
Migratory. 
Adult Male. 
Bill long, straight, subulate, somewhat depressed at the base, acute ; upper 
mandible with the dorsal line straight, the ridge narrow at the base, broad 
and convex toward the end, the sides convex, the edges overlapping, the tip 
acuminate ; lower mandible with the angle very long and extremely narrow, 
the dorsal line straight, the edges erect, the tip acuminate. Nostrils basal, 
linear. 
Head of ordinary size, oblong ; neck short ; body slender. Feet very 
small ; tarsus very short, feathered more than half-way down, toes small ; 
the lateral equal, the middle toe not much longer, the hind toe a little shorter 
than the lateral, anterior toes united at the base ; claws rather long, arched, 
compressed, laterally grooved, very acute. 
Plumage soft and blended ; feathers on the throat, fore part and sides of 
the neck oblong-obovate, with the filaments towards the end thickened and 
flattened, with metallic gloss, those on the sides of the neck elongated and 
erectile. Wings rather short, extremely narrow, falcate, pointed ; the 
primaries rapidly graduated, the second being longest, but only slightly 
longer than the first ; these two quills taper to a point ; the rest are broader, 
and gradually become less pointed ; the secondaries are extremely short, 
and only five in number. Tail rather long, broad, graduated, the lateral 
feathers four and a half twelfths of an inch shorter than the central ; the 
latter are extremely broad, measuring four and a half twelfths across, and 
the rest gradually diminish to the lateral, which are very narrow ; all 
obtusely pointed. 
Bill brownish-black ; toes brown, claws dusky. The general colour of the 
upper parts is bright cinnamon or reddish-orange ; the head bronzed green> 
the wings dusky, the coverts glossed with green, the primaries with purplish ; 
each of the tail-feathers has a narrow longitudinal lanceolate median streak 
toward the end. The loral space, a narrow band over the eye, another 
beneath it, and the auriculars are reddish- orange ; the scale-like feathers of 
the throat and sides of the neck are splendent fire-red, purplish-red, yellow- 
ish-red, greenish-yellow or yellowish-green, according to the light in which 
they are viewed ; behind them, on the lower part of the neck, is a broad 
band of reddish-white ; the rest of the lower parts are like the upper, 
the abdomen inclining to white. 
Length to end of tail 3 T 7 2 inches ; bill along the ridge ^|, along the edge 
of lower mandible wing from flexure ; tail ; tarsus -j-| ; hind toe 
; its claw ji; middle toe fi, its claw -pj. 
Adu't Female. 
